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Horatio has a rather emotionally withdrawn personality and, despite the odd chuckle and smile here and there, acts rather dispassionate, unless empathizing with victims or his team and showing compassion to the same. Thus it is often difficult to tell what he is thinking.

Horatio is gifted at getting information out of children; when speaking to a child he speaks softly and cocks his head (in his usual manner) allowing him to maintain eye contact with the child without making them feel guilty or upsetting them. Despite his good rapport with children, Horatio tends to have a dry, sterile attitude, especially with suspects and members of federal agencies (CSI: episode 222, "Cross Jurisdictions").

While he usually has a pretty intense demeanor, he does have a softer side, which usually doesn't show until a case has been solved, and things are a little quieter in the lab. He is also especially soft towards children, often acting as a "father figure". In addition, he frequently tries his best to give victims a "second chance," in the event that they have suffered from some sort of misfortune; even attempting to bend the rules, if that would be to their benefit.

Despite his creative one liners, which are usually intended to humiliate the criminals, he hardly ever displays a personal sense of humor.

However, there have been instances throughout the series when flashes of his apparently rather short and violent temper have come through, such as when he found out about his brother's illegitimate daughter, suggesting that his sterile attitude is the result of a harsh self-control. It should also be noted that his son, Kyle, has the ability to draw his temper to the surface. In addition, he occasionally uses duress or intimidation to extract information from suspects he is interrogating.

Horatio becomes darker and more sinister as the series progresses. In his early episodes, he saves Stewart Otis, a pedophile who is hanging on top of a building. However, he is again faced with the same situation where he just stares and doesn't help Edwin, watching as he falls to his death (episode 1011, "Crowned").

Compared to his Las Vegas Night Shift counterpart, Gil Grissom, Horatio tends to follow his intuition to make unlikely connections, and often jumps directly into the action, also not hesitating to use deadly force if necessary, both likely a relic of working homicide in two different cities. In doing so, he rarely pauses to sit and think things through.

Horatio is not afraid to bend the rules to get the job done, or to exact revenge. This is evident when Eric Delko and he traveled to Brazil for the purpose of killing Antonio Riaz, the Mala Noche Don who ordered the hit on Marisol. Sometimes, though, this gets him into trouble with IAB's Rick Stetler.

Nevertheless, in tune with his rather quiet and patient modus operandi, one of Horatio's hobbies is fishing (episode 306, "Hell Night").

In the CSI continuum, Caine is Day Shift supervisor at the Miami-Dade crime lab, a forensic analyst and former homicide detective and bomb squad officer (his forensic specialty is arson and explosion evidence). He is very protective of his team, who affectionately call him "H". He is very concerned about the reputation of his lab, and takes great care to keep them clean, perhaps because of his experience with his tarnished younger brother, Ray. When his staff fall under suspicion in several episodes (episode 425, "One of Our Own", episode 512, "Internal Affairs"), he immediately jumps in their defense, especially from IAB investigator Rick Stetler, and tries his best to prove their innocence.

He has many recurring enemies throughout the series, from serial killer Walter Resden, to abusive Internal Affairs Agent Rick Stetler, to corrupt judge Joseph Ratner. These were all arrested or killed by the end of season 10.

Caine appears to have a good sense for how to communicate with children and adults alike, who have just experienced traumatic ordeals, obtaining information from them quickly and gently. He obtained a degree in Chemistry and formerly worked as an explosives expert, knowledge which still aids him in his duties. Along with this, he is an exceptionally skilled and accurate marksman, as seen in No Man's Land, Guerillas in the Mist and various other episodes. A superb marksman, Caine doesn't hesitate to use deadly force when needed. He is also an ardent advocate of the death penalty for particularly heinous crimes, and doesn't think twice about threatening suspects with it in such cases. He has demonstrated several times to be fluent in Spanish, knows French, and is, along with Ryan Wolfe and Frank Tripp, among the fastest drivers among the Miami crew. Finally, Horatio has an uncanny knack for appearing, walking and disappearing silently, even in heavy boots.

As a child, Horatio was a victim of domestic violence (his mother was killed by his father, and he ended up killing the man in a failed attempt to save her), which accounts to his comparatively extreme reactions in abuse and domestic violence cases. Caine then worked in New York City as detective with the NYPD. In 1995, while on the job, he was stabbed while investigating a case in which children were locked in closets while their parents were murdered. The perpetrator, Walter Resden, harbored a deep grudge against Caine, collecting the blood from the stabbing and preserving it for 10 years in order to frame him for the murder of Caine's girlfriend, Rachel Turner. Walter Resden was caught in a later episode.

After his arrival in Florida, Horatio joined the Miami-Dade Police as a homicide detective but later transferred to the bomb squad, where he was mentored by Al Humphries, an older cop whom Caine highly respected and considered a good friend. Sometime later, Horatio moved to the Crime Lab, accepting a promotion to lieutenant, which earned him the animosity of Sergeant Rick Stetler, who was also vying for the rank. Rick holds a grudge against him through CSI until he gets arrested in a late season. When veteran CSI Megan Donner went on personal leave following the death of her husband, Horatio became the permanent head of the lab.

Horatio worked undercover as "John Walden" in Pensacola, Florida for sometime during the early 1990s (this is the date given on the show, despite the fact it was previously understood on the show that Horatio worked in New York until at least 1995). During his time there, he dated a woman he believed to be named Julia Eberly, and the two conceived a son named Kyle. Horatio would not be aware of Kyle's existence for another sixteen years.

At the end of season 2 (episode 223, "MIA/NYC NonStop"), Caine travels to New York City in pursuit of a murder suspect and meets Detective Mac Taylor and his team, inaugurating the first season of CSI: NY.

He is very insistent on gun maintenance, especially since team member Tim Speedle was killed in a shootout after his gun misfired because of the lack of maintenance (episode 301, "Lost Son"). In fact, one of the reasons for Caine's nearly on-the-spot selection of Officer Ryan Wolfe as Tim Speedle's replacement is Wolfe's compulsive care of his firearm due to OCD (episode 303, "Under the Influence").

Caine later reunites with Detective Taylor and the New York CSIs to track down and arrest the murderer, Henry Darius, who would be extradited to Florida to face the death penalty (episode 407, "Felony Flight," CSI: NY episode 207, "Manhattan Manhunt"). This appearance would make Horatio the first character to appear at least once in all three CSI shows. During this time he is served a subpoena for the murder of his father after the New York DA goes after him, which he manages to dodge.

Clavo Cruz, who was serving a life sentence for murdering a woman (episode 201, "Blood Brothers," episode 315, "Identity"), escapes custody in a dramatic rocket attack on a courthouse (superficially injuring coroner Alexx Woods). Cruz then kidnaps a court stenographer and forces Horatio to bring him $1 million dollars in exchange for her location.

It's all a set-up, however, and Caine and Delko are ambushed on the roof of a parking garage. Though Horatio shoots down one man and escapes without injury, Delko is critically wounded even as Caine fires at the fleeing gunmen (episode 514, "No Man's Land"). Horatio eventually forces Cruz out of hiding by removing all his avenues of escape. Cruz approaches Horatio outside the Miami-Dade Crime Lab, and Caine kills Clavo with a single shot to the chest (episode 515, "Man Down").

Horatio is later forced to fire Wolfe, as the younger CSI compromised himself during the course of the investigation due to his gambling debts and lack of honesty regarding the situation (episode 522, "Burned"). Wolfe also previously violated protocol. Caine indicates a willingness to allow Wolfe to redeem himself, however, and possibly allow him to return to the team after reviewing all the files from his previous cases (episode 523, "Kill Switch").

It's reveled that Horatio has a son, Kyle Harmon. Before meeting his father, Kyle was under parole for stealing a boat. When his parole-officer was shot, he became a suspect and so the first contact with Horatio was established. Reviewing Kyle's file, Horatio had the suspicion that Kyle may be his son (episode 601, "Dangerous Son").

Although Kyle was let go because it could not be proven that he was the one who killed his parole officer, he was later blackmailed by Rick Bates to kidnap the wife of the prison guard Bates had been working with, Kathleen Newberry. Kyle did as he was told, but later let his hostage go and fled using a boot. Meanwhile, Horatio got proof that Kyle was indeed his son and he managed to keep the coastguards from shooting Kyle. Kyle then gave himself up and was arrested.

Caine finds himself targeted by the son of Argento, a crime lord whom he helped put in jail some years earlier. After Caine's vehicle is vandalized, the young man smugly denies culpability. Horatio walks headlong into a trap and is shot at by the son. However, the rounds from his gun were replaced with blanks, Caine leaves without injury and the son is arrested afterward (episode 602, "Cyber-Lebrity").

At the end of the season 6 finale, Horatio is shot. It appears as though he is dead, but in behind the scenes video, it's said Horatio's death was faked so he can go after Ron. David Caruso says, "Horatio designed a staging of an event that will free him up to go after this man with a different license." This was later proven true as Horatio was seen alive in "Resurrection, Part 2".

In the Season 9 premiere, he rushes to the crime lab, fearing for the team's lives. When he got out of the elevator, he finds everyone down and Eric still awake. Eric then tells him to shoot the window for oxygen. After Horatio does so, everyone gets up, except for Jesse Cardoza, who died during his fall. Horatio then tries to comfort the devastated Natalia Boa Vista, who unsuccessfully attempted to revive him. Horatio then joins the team on a game of basketball, in honor of Jesse at the end of the episode after they find the killer.

In "See No Evil" a large prison break occurs and one of the inmates, Joe LeBrock, states that they were planning on targeting Caine.

In the episode "Manhunt", he and the team track down Memmo Fierro, the man who was serving time for killing Marisol Delko (Horatio's wife and Eric's sister) after he is one of the eight people who broke out in the previous episode. Memmo (under orders of Antonio Riaz of the Mala Noche) had shot Marisol then blocked the ambulance, trying to get Caine to come out, forcing the ambulance to drive over a center median (at the hospital, a doctor states that the car was worse than the bullet). Both the shooting and the blocking proved fatal to Marisol. At the end of the episode, Memmo takes a hostage, his daughter's social worker. Eric has a clear shot of him, but Horatio tells him not to shoot him in front of Memmo's daughter. After Memmo sees his daughter, he leaves with the hostage, who is later found dead.

In "Happy Birthday" Horatio is seen driving at the beginning of the episode with a bouquet of flowers on the passenger seat and leaves Eric a message on his phone asking him to take over for him a while so he can run an errand. He is distracted by a pedestrian who informs him a pregnant women has been assaulted on the side of the road. Leaving his errand behind, he helps the women and spends the rest of the episode looking for the people who did this to her while the mother and the baby are fighting for their life back in the hospital. At the end the episode the mother gives birth to a baby girl and we see Horatio at Marisols' grave and tells her the baby is "beautiful just like you". He then wishes her happy birthday.

In "Last Stand", Memmo returns with a gang of drug cartels, and Caine lays a trap for him, alone. Caine kicks Memmo multiple times and holds him at gunpoint. Memmo states him killing his wife was not personal, but Caine responds it was to him. Memmo asks if what Caine is doing is "righteous" and if he is at peace with his decision. Caine responds he is, and places him under arrest, and waits for backup to arrive.

In "Mayday", Horatio and Frank end up being held at gunpoint on a plane they were using to transport a fugitive named Jack Toller. The plane crash lands, but the fugitive escapes. At the end of the episode, Horatio's fate is unknown as he has been shot by Randy North. North also temporarily stuns Natalia Boa Vista and drags her to a car where he stuffs her in the trunk. After speaking a few words to Natalia, he shuts the trunk door, turns the car on, and forces it to roll over the pier. Meanwhile, Horatio gains the ability to shoot at Randy, but is unable to save Natalia due to the gunshot Horatio received to his abdomen, It's likely that if Natalia hadn't stopped to help Horatio when he got shot, she may have been able to shoot Randy North, who had tricked them into walking straight into his trap.

In "Countermeasures" Horatio begins to have hallucinations of Marisol, saying she is glad to see him but he needs to go back. He is then shown back at the dock where he was shot, managing to get himself back up to his feet. Still bleeding from his gunshot wound, he jumps into the water to save Natalia, managing to free her from the car. As they are rushed to the hospital, he repeatedly calls Marisol's name.

Against doctor's advice & still visibly in pain, he leaves the hospital to work on the case. He & the team manage to find North & try to get him to tell them where Toller is. Despite setting him up. Toller slips through his fingers once at a rail yard, but Walter discovers that the chemicals in the soot from Toller's old clothes could only have come from trash burned at a particular landfill. Horatio manages to find & capture Toller there after he very nearly sets another woman on fire. After leading Toller back to jail, Horatio finally concedes that he is not all right and agrees to get checked out.

Horatio was present at the deaths of his mother, his father, his wife, his fellow CSI Tim Speedle, and that of his own brother, Raymond Caine.

Horatio has the strange habit of delivering a little one-liner, then replacing his sunglasses before leaving the scene (most prevalent in the opening of any given episode).

Unlike his counterpart in Las Vegas, now former CSI Supervisor Gil Grissom (CSI: Crime Scene Investigation), Horatio is a commissioned police officer, and thus carries a badge and gun.

When questioning witnesses or suspects, he tends to stand sideways with his head cocked slightly, allowing for non-threatening eye-contact. On the other hand, he also has the habit of subtly exposing his badge by placing his hands on his hips to intimidate non-complying suspects and uncooperative individuals. ("Hell Night", "Collateral Damage")

Horatio has a taste for expensive designer clothes (his customary Sihouette Sun Titan Minimal Art sunglasses retail at ca $300 a pair), but nearly never wears a tie with his suit, usually only when going to court as witness. ("Simple Man")

As shown in From the Grave, Horatio is Catholic, and has apparently kept his faith close.

His weapon season one and two was a Berreta cougar and then he switched to a sig p229 in season three.

Horatio is the only character in CSI: Miami to have appeared in every episode in all 10 seasons.